What separates Americans into differing sides on issues? Divisions such as management and labor, urban and rural, red and blue states, Catholics, Protestants, and Jews, do not accurately define today’s culture. Conservative Catholics, Protestants, and Jews join together in opposing abortion and other aspects of the progressive agenda. The basic question is, “Do we have absolute moral standards to guide our lives?”

Our View of Truth

Francis Schaeffer identified the crisis of our age as a shift in the way people view truth. While accepting objective truth in matters of science and math, many reject objective truth in matters of faith and morals. The traditional Catholic and Protestant feared going to Hell. The new Catholic and mainline Protestant may not even believe in Hell and absolute truth. Many evangelicals hedge on these issues.

The fundamental dividing line is a changed view of truth and morality. Those holding to transcendent moral values believe absolute and ultimate truth is centered in God. These standards have an objective validity, not subject to individual feelings and preferences.

For Bible believing Christians, sex outside of marriage, lying, profanity, and drunkenness are wrong. Adultery, fornication, homosexuality, greed, arrogance, and selfishness violate ultimate moral standards. Abortion at any stage and destroying human embryos kills human beings. Individual preference or convenience should not decide these moral issues

Yet some claiming to be Christians practice homosexuality or live together outside of marriage, feeling they have every right to do so. They christen any belief or lifestyle as Christian because truth has been redefined.

For 200 years philosophers have relentlessly assaulted the idea of objective truth advocating various forms of subjectivism. These views include romanticism (truth as feeling), pragmatism (truth as what works), existentialism (truth as one’s personal choice), and the current phase, postmodernism (objective truth does not exist). Today’s culture reflects a widespread acceptance of truth as relative. Instead of objective moral standards, personal preference decides truth in matters of faith and morals. Your lifestyle and religious view can be true for you, and mine is true for me.

Those who deny objective truth consider themselves more tolerant because they say they accept all views as true. However, they show little tolerance toward those who believe behavior should be guided by transcendent values. When law is based on current preference and not on objective moral standards, the most powerful will rule. Dismissing truth will not make us free; it will unleash new tribal groups based on power. Might will decide what is right. Jesus said, “The truth will set you free” (John 8:32). He didn’t mean any truth that I choose for myself, but the truth that fits reality.

In the last 50 years, mass communication has indoctrinated our culture with these ideas. Truth as subjective and relative has been taught and is being taught in schools, universities, and the media. Truth is irrelevant; live as you please.

Our View of Christ

The urgent need of the day is for those who know the truth in Christ to teach that truth with the power and spirit of love. We must not be harsh, rigid legalists. When people turn away from a hard legalistic version of Christianity they often swing to an opposite extreme of tolerant doctrinal indifferentism.

The church needs to resist absorbing this subjective culture in our preaching, worship, and lifestyles. We need sermons that declare boldly and clearly the truth of the Word of God, not some psychological pep talk or the latest gossip from the Internet. We need music that directs our thoughts and hearts to know, appreciate, and honor God. We must not depend on the beat, the volume, and the performers. We must speak and live the truth in love.

How has this phase of minimizing and denying objective truth affected the church? The medieval mysticism advocated by some in the emerging church movement seems to continue the problem because it minimizes the objective truth of the Word of God. Churches that downplay Christian truth in an effort not to offend outsiders seem to reflect the problem. Seekers will not have their needs met until they come to a knowledge of and relationship with the God who made them and the Lord Jesus Christ who died for them. Shielding them from truth will not produce disciples or mature believers.

Experience takes front stage; doctrinal truth is pushed aside. Activity does not equal truth. Actions need to be interpreted by truth expressed in beliefs, principles, and values. If no objective truth is acknowledged, then everyone will do what is right in his own eyes. We need to evaluate our actions in our lifestyle and religious experience by God’s truth. When we jettison truth, then everyone’s experience becomes equally valid. If nothing is wrong, then nothing is really true. At this point, God help us, we are hopelessly lost.

The dividing line of our concept of truth cuts through lifestyles, politics, and churches. God and his Word are our surest source and test of truth. Obedience to his truth brings genuine freedom and fulfillment. |L

H. Lynn Gardner is retired from the faculty of Ozark Christian College in Joplin, Missouri.

OUTLOOK is a forum for responsible Christian writers. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of Standard Publishing or The Lookout.

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November 1, 2009 - Walking the edge
October 18, 2009 - Watch what you say
October 4, 2009 - Proposing a new proverb
September 20, 2009 - Fear and trembling
September 6, 2009 - Elwyn
August 23, 2009 - Where did the Bible go?
August 9, 2009 - The public school: a local mission field
July 26, 2009 - Astonishing the judges
July 12, 2009 - Letting the past go
June 28, 2009 - Line up
June 14, 2009 - The path to spiritual growth
May 31, 2009 - A tribute to one of my heroes
May 17, 2009 - Silent soldier
April 19, 2009 - Operation Resensitization
April 5, 2009 - The temptations of ministers
March 8, 2009 - Conversation over shoes
February 22, 2009 - By their plurals you shall know them
February 8, 2009 - What is missing from your retirement plans?
January 25, 2009 - Turn the page
December 28, 2008 - Abba, Father
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November 30, 2008 - The illusion
October 19, 2008 - Acting like a toddler
October 5, 2008 - Don’t miss this
September 21, 2008 - Foolish schemes
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August 24, 2008 - The dance
August 10, 2008 - Strange land
July 27, 2008 - God’s amazing grace
July 13, 2008 - A best seller
June 29, 2008 - My grandfather’s clock and worship
June 1, 2008 - Reclaiming the name
May 4, 2008 - God is not our fairy godmother
April 6, 2008 - Success: what is it and who can measure up?
March 9, 2008 - Need to know
February 10, 2008 - The top three myths of singleness
January 13, 2008 - By invitation only
December 5, 2007 - Yes, Abbie, there is a Jesus
November 18, 2007 - 10 Ways to be a good Christmas customer
September 23, 2007 - What do you fear?
September 9, 2007 - A life well lived
August 26, 2007 - To murmur, or not to murmur
July 29, 2007 - The cross and the Christian
July 15, 2007 - Turning the other cheek: still a valuable biblical principle
July 1, 2007 - Why the tie?
June 3, 2007 - The death of a son
May 6, 2007 - A prayer for the dying
April 8, 2007 - The omnipresent God
March 11, 2007 - Do the Amish have superheroes?
February 11, 2007 - What’s your black history?
January 14, 2007 - The split branch
December 31, 2006 - The house of regret
December 10, 2006 - The redemption of the innkeeper
November 26, 2006 - Too many choices
November 12, 2006 - Break the bashing habit: Learning to love the unsaved like Christ does: November 12, 2006
October 15, 2006 - Be ‘salt and light’ this Christmas!: October 15, 2006
September 17, 2006 - Who is a legalist?: September 17, 2006 Issue 38
July 23, 2006 - God speaks through our brokenness: July 23, 2006 Issue 38
June 25, 2006 - 'What I am looking for in my church leaders'